I am Innocent!
by Jennifer M. Serrentino
Summary: What would have happened if Anne Boleyn had gotten the chance to talk to Henry before he ordered her to die for treason? This is something I came up with earlier tonight and decided to just run with it. R&R please!


Anne ran down the hall, her hood askew and long, raven-black hair flying behind her. In her arms she held baby Elizabeth, who was looking up at her mother with wild, scared eyes. "Mama, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Anne said nothing to her young daughter and continued to run. She stormed into Henry's private chambers and said coldly, "I need to talk to you, Henry."

Henry looked up at his wife and said, "Anne, this is not the time." He gestured to the gentlemen sitting at the table with him and said, "As you can see, I am in the middle of an important meeting. I will talk to you later."

"No, Henry. You will talk to me now. I know all about this little 'meeting' as you have called it and I am quite offended that you would come to these 'gentlemen' with our marital problems, but you won't talk to me," Anne said contemptuously.

"Anne, if you value your life, you will leave this instant!" Henry said. Most of the men in the room looked quite uncomfortable, but there were a few that shared discreet looks of joy at the comeuppance of the black-eyed slut that had seduced the king.

Anne stared at Henry. Never before had he threatened her like that or even spoken to her with malice in his voice. "Henry, I think that this is private matter between you and me and that we need to deal with it that way. I honestly can not believe that you would want to discuss this with these men rather than with me." She looked at him with pleading eyes and said, "Please come with me. For the sake of our daughter."

Henry looked at the frightened child in Anne's arms and sighed. He loved Anne and his daughter with her, but he couldn't ignore the claims that were being brought against her. "Anne, this is not the time or the place for this—"

"That is where you are wrong, Henry. This is the exact right time and place for us to have this discussion. Actually, these men should be here to hear this discussion as they are the ones accusing me of such false and insulting claims." Anne looked each one of the men in the eye as she said this. Her eyes settled on Thomas Cromwell. "And I know the person who started these malicious rumors is in this room right this instant!"

Henry looked down the table to where Anne was staring and said, "Anne, Master Cromwell has England's and my best interest at heart here!"

"He only has his own best interest at heart!" Anne interrupted Henry. "He has never liked me and is trying to get rid of me because he is jealous of the attention you give me! He thinks that if you get rid of me and declare our child a bastard that he will have won and will be able to rule England through you! Don't you see that! I love you and would never do anything to jeopardize the love that I know you still have for me!" Anne walked over to her husband and put a hand to his cheek. "Don't you know me better than that? Don't you know that I would do anything for you? That I would walk through the fires of hell for you? I would _never_ betray you like that! _Especially _not with my brother!"

The men in the room held their breaths as they waited for the king to say something in response to what Anne had just proclaimed in front of all them. Thomas Cromwell was particularly nervous. He knew that if she could convince Henry that she was innocent that he was a dead man. He inwardly cursed himself for not making sure that the guards were posted at more convenient spots to prevent Anne from coming into the king's chambers. He decided to take matters into his own hands. "Excuse me, your majesty, but I must speak here," he started. He looked at Anne and said, "We have an eye-witness to these claims. Her reputation is irrefutable and she is a kinswoman to you, Mistress Boleyn."

Anne did not notice the slight to her name and said, "I am not _Mistress Boleyn, _I am Queen Anne, Queen of England, and you had best remember it if you want to keep your head on your shoulders, Master Cromwell. And the woman that you are referring to is no kinswoman of mine if she would dare to make these accusations against me." Anne turned to Henry again and said, "My dear Henry, Jane Parker has a personal grudge against me because her husband, my dear brother, would rather spend time with me, his sister, than her. He can not stand her, never has been and never will be able to. He would have never married her except that my father commanded it of him! Jane Parker would do anything to see me and her husband suffer because she is a miserable, old wench!"

Henry stood up this and grabbed Anne by the arm. He dragged her towards the door and said, "Anne, you should have left on your own when you had the chance!" He pulled the door open and pushed her out. Anne looked up at him and then gently placed Elizabeth on the floor. She looked back up at him and said slowly, "Henry, think about this please. Why would I make such a foolish decision like that if I knew that it would hurt you? Especially since you and I have already gone through so much to be together?" She gently took his hand in both of hers and said, "I love you, Henry. I have always loved you and always will. I have never been with any other man besides you and have never wanted to be any other man than you. I am innocent to these charges and if you would just look beyond your insecurities, you would see that." She looked him directly in the eyes and said, "Why would you ever think otherwise?"

Henry looked at his wife and sighed again. In truth, he didn't fully believe everything that was being said about Anne. He knew that she had enemies through out the court, like anybody, but didn't think that they would go so far to make up such outlandish tales about her if there wasn't some basis of truth behind them. "Anne," he started, "please don't do this right now. Take Elizabeth back to her nursery and go to your chambers. I will talk to you later when you are in a better state of mind."

"I will never be in a better state of mood when I know that you are doubtful of my innocence in something this serious!" Anne looked at Henry with hurt and disappointment in her eyes. "I can not believe that you are actually considering that these claims are truthful! That you would believe that I would sacrifice everything that I have with you and our daughter for a roll in the hay with another man!" Anne dropped Henry's hand and bent to pick up Elizabeth from the ground. She looked back up at Henry and said sadly, "You are not the man I thought that you were, Henry Tudor. I thought that you had more common sense that this." She turned and started to walk away from him when she was whirled back around to face him. His eyes were full of tears and indignation.

"Anne Boleyn, you have some nerve! Do you forget whom you are talking to? I am not some young, stupid courtier who has no rank or due amount of respect! I am the King of England! And I am your husband!"

"Yes, my husband who doubts my faithfulness to him! Who doubts my love of him! Who doubts the paternity of my daughter with him!" Her voice broke with that last sentence and the tears started to fall down her cheeks again unchecked. "Henry, if anyone has betrayed our marriage it is you! I have never wavered in my love or faithfulness to you; yet every time I turn around, you have another slut in your lap or worse, in your bed! How am I supposed to feel when this is shoved into my face every other second? How am I supposed to trust you?" She paused for a second and wiped her eyes. She glared back at him after a second and continued, "I love how you can go about your 'business' and bed every hussy that comes your way, and no one thinks anything about it; but if for one instant, my virtue as a true and faithful wife comes into question, there is a huge investigation and you never even come to me to ask _me _if there is any truth to it! Henry, you slept with my _sister! _She bore _two_ of your children! You have never once doubted her or the paternity of them, but you would me! Please, explain to me how this makes any sense whatsoever!"

Henry stood there astonished. He could not believe that she would throw all of this at him _now_, especially when her life hung in the balance. She must have thought that she had nothing left to lose if she was doing this. He suddenly realized how many people had gathered in the hall outside of his rooms to listen to Anne berate him. His face grew red and flushed and he pulled her towards the end of the hallway. He entered a surprisingly empty room and closed the door behind them. He then turned to Anne and said, "My dear, you cut me to the quick with these spiteful words. I called that meeting with my advisors to go over all of the evidence that they had gathered and I must say that it doesn't look very good for you. It doesn't help your case to be screaming your head off at me and causing a scene either."

"I wouldn't have to cause a scene or scream my head off if you would just use yours and realize that none of this makes any sense!" Anne said. "I have gone through so much to be with you Henry! I have given you a beautiful daughter and I have tried to give you a beautiful and strong son as well, but unfortunately for me, I have not yet been able to. I constantly live in fear that I will be put aside because I have failed as of yet to do this and my sister was! I have tried so hard with you, Henry and I want so badly to give you a son, I want so badly to be able to trust you, but I can't because nothing I do is good enough for you! It seems to me as if you want to believe the lies that you are being told about me so that you can place the blame on anyone other than yourself for this not working! I lost both of those babies that _you_ and I conceived out of love because I could not do as the doctor requested and not have an immense amount of stress put on me because I am constantly worried about my life and the life of my daughter and my marriage! I can't trust in you to put a stop to these outrageous lies that are being said about me! I can't trust you to trust me and trust that the vows I made before God to _you _that I would be faithful to you and cleave only to you and—"

Henry cut her off by kissing her. It was the only thing that he could think of to do to get her to stop talking. He surprised himself with what he was doing but at the same time couldn't stop himself. He suddenly remembered why he had fallen in love with Anne and felt immensely stupid for ever doubting her and believing that she would ever betray him.

Anne wrapped her arms around Henry's neck and kissed him with all of her heart and soul. She was so happy at that moment that she forgot everything that she was yelling at him about only moments before.

They stayed that way for a few moments until they heard a knock on the door and slowly pulled apart. They looked at the door and Henry said, "Who goes there?"  
"Your majesty, it is I, Thomas Cromwell. Is everything alright? May I come in?"

Henry sighed and said, "Yes, everything is fine, Thomas. Please have Elizabeth's governess come and bring her to her nursery. The queen and I have a lot to discuss."

"Sir?"

"Do not question me! Just do as I say!" Henry roared. He heard a shuffle of feet from behind the door and turned to Anne. "Anne, I am so sorry that I have hurt you in such a way. I can not believe that I would ever believe for one second that you would do such a thing. Can you ever forgive me?"

Anne looked at her husband for a few minutes and carefully considered what she was going to say before she said it. She knew that she only had a few minutes before the governess came to collect Elizabeth and she didn't want to lose Henry's focus before that happened because she knew that her very life still hung in the balance. "Henry, I love you more than life itself and what you have done and said in the past few days has hurt me very badly. I will forgive you for this, but you must promise me that you will never doubt me ever again. I would never, ever betray you in such a way and the fact that you would ever doubt me has hurt me more than words can say. If you and I are going to make this work, I need you to promise me this. Will you do that for me?"

"Yes, I swear it. I will never doubt you or your virtue ever again," Henry solemnly swore to Anne. He meant it, too. "Can we forget that this ever happened?"

"I wish that we could, darling, but unfortunately we can not. Jane Parker has said some very nasty things about me and my brother and some very innocent men; men that are right now sitting in the tower of London. They need to be released and returned to their families."

Henry nodded and said, "I will see to it that that happens right away. Jane Parker will not get away with this."

"And neither will Thomas Cromwell," Anne added. At Henry's raised eyebrows, she added, "Do you forget already that he was the one that made these allegations public and brought them to your attention? I told you that he has never liked me and has always been looking for a way to get rid of me." Henry nodded again.

"I will deal with Cromwell," Henry promised her. "Right now, you and I are going to have some private time and we are going to discuss everything that has happened."

Anne let out the breath that she had been holding and smiled. She knew then that she was safe from the gallows and that she was once again in the king's favor. She thought of what she would tell her sister Mary and her father once she got George out of the tower and her smile got even bigger. She couldn't wait to see her brother and tell him that is was his snake of a wife that had tried to betray them. He could finally be rid of her and find a love that was worthy of him and his son. She looked up at Henry and said, "I can't wait to be alone with you again. Maybe we can work on getting that prince for England."

"My dear, I would like nothing more," Henry said. He kissed her again and then held her in his arms. He looked down at his daughter and smiled. He let go of Anne for a moment to pick up Elizabeth and said to her, "Hello Bessie. Everything is alright now. I promise you that." Elizabeth smiled at her father and mother and snuggled into her father's chest. Henry wrapped his other arm around Anne again and that was how Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Howard found them when they came back to the room with Elizabeth's governess.

Thomas Cromwell knew then and there that he was a dead man and that he was going to pay for trying to dethrone Anne Boleyn. He could tell from the glint in her eye and the look on the king's face that she had sunk her claws back into him and that there was nothing he could do about it this time. He had tried and failed and would pay for it with him life.

Thomas Howard looked at his niece and couldn't decide if he should be happy or sad at the moment. He was happy because his family was safe for the moment and could possibly have a male heir to the throne after all; but he also knew that this secured Anne's place as queen more than ever before. He had wanted to have her knocked down a few pegs so that she wouldn't be thinking that she was invincible and didn't need him to guide her in anyway anymore. He also knew that he would be more than sad if his role in the plot to overthrow Anne ever came out. He knew what a snake in the grass Jane Parker was and that she wouldn't hesitate to throw him to the wolves in order to save her own skin. He made a mental note to take care of her before anything could ever be said about him and his role in this whole mess.  
Anne looked at her uncle and Cromwell and knew that both men had played a role in all of this madness and made a promise to herself that they would both pay. Right now, she just wanted to watch them squirm and sweat like she had been while waiting to find out if she was going to die for a crime that she had not committed. She looked up at her husband and said, "Henry lets go. I just want to be with you right now and make up for all of the lost time that was stolen from us because of all of these lies."

"Alright my dear; anything for you." Henry kissed Anne on the forehead, handed Elizabeth to her nurse and walked out of the room with an arm around Anne's shoulder to show everyone that all was good between them again. They walked that way to her chambers and closed the door behind them. No one heard from the king or the queen for several hours and if they did, they did their best to ignore the screams and cries of passion that emitted from the queens bedchamber.

The End


End file.
